Lady Tigers bring back plenty of experience

Wednesday

Aug 28, 2013 at 2:22 PMAug 28, 2013 at 4:18 PM

Barry Ragan

The scene was unusually quiet while the St. John-Hudson's girls volleyball team were waiting for their coach Trish Wade to show up for last Monday afternoon's 3:30 pm. practice. Muscles were sore, the girls were tired and not many smiles were going around – especially after having an earlier motivational practice starting one minute after midnight that day.

And if you would think the gals didn't have an once of energy left (and at the time it looked that way), you would have been wrong. Most, if not all the players were moving full tilt, playing highly intense ball once practice got started. And that was just the half of it – the Tigers keeping up a constant stream of loud chatter throughout the drills, which helped keep the energy going and the girls getting themselves used to any background noise.

Coach Wade's “plan for the day” was obvious - to run, run and then run some more.

And it had to be that way, especially with volleyball matches coming up on Tuesday, Sept. 3rd matched up against 1A Burrton and 3A Halstead at Burrton.

“I'm looking forward to our upperclassmen leading this large group of underclassmen” said Wade. “We're going to have to be creative with that many girls on one court but I accept the challenge!”

And even though Wade lost two highly talented seniors last year(Jamie Waters & Morgan Osborne), she still has the prospect of another successful season with player experience on her side, with the likes of seniors Alexis Witt, Jessica Hanson, Tia Smith, Taylor Woodward, Haley Falk and Maddy Lippoldt, and add juniors Teresa Christie, Tara Christie and Ashlyn Fisher to the mix.

“Our upperclassmen have much experience in our last three years” said Wade. “The upper classes had only two girls in each class, so this year's seniors and some juniors had to play and contribute to our Tiger team.”

“We were pleased to have Hailey released to play after having surgery on her ankle last spring in which she missed a lot of her track season. She's working hard to get her vertical and moving as well as she did did prior to her injury!”

“It's nice adding so many freshmen (8) to the squad since we lose six seniors after this year” said Wade. “The freshmen are working hard and trying to soak up all the info we keep throwing at them. They're doing a good job and our upper classmen have been patient and supportive because they know it takes everyone to help us become a better team together!”

For an exciting game of volleyball, be sure to support your Lady Tigers throughout the season.